Death by leaks: Russian hacking helped sink Clinton 2016 campaign

In September 2015 an FBI cybersecurity agent called up the Democratic National Committee, just gearing up for the coming presidential election, to report that Russia-linked hackers had penetrated their network.

The agent was passed on to the help desk, where his message died. 

Nine months later, the result became clear: hackers began leaking out personal emails, opposition research, and other documents, a number of them embarrassing, that were swept up from Democrat Hillary Clinton's White House fight. 

The leak helped turn her sure-thing campaign into a struggle that she ultimately lost to Republican Donald Trump on November 8, 2016.

On Friday Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 12 Russian intelligence officers for the hacks, which US intelligence says were part of a concerted effort to hurt Clinton's campaign and boost Trump.

The indictment brought back one of the most consequential episodes of the 2016 election.

The first hackers, according to U.S. intelligence, were tied to the Federal Security Service, the successor to the KGB.

As they exploited their access, in March 2016 hackers from the military intelligence agency, the GRU, broke into computers of the DNC and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, using phishing techniques against staffer emails -- including the account of campaign chairman John Podesta -- and inserting malware to keep the access open.

And they began sweeping up gigabytes worth of materials.

- Hacking ignored until too late -

It was only in early June 2016 that campaign officials understood the gravity of the hack, but it was too late. On June 14, The Washington Post reported that "Russian government hackers" had penetrated the DNC, and one day later, the leaks began.

The Gawker and Smoking Gun websites published the DNC's internal report on Trump, who had just captured the Republican nomination.

They received the documents from the mysterious "Guccifer 2.0," a hacker who claimed to be Romanian. Friday's indictment said Guccifer 2.0 and another DNC document leaker, "DCLeaks", were personas created by the indicted GRU agents.

The leaks went mostly quiet for weeks until, three days before the Democratic convention in late July, WikiLeaks dropped 20,000 DNC emails on its website.

They were damaging, showing the party leadership had, rather than stay neutral, worked to help Clinton defeat rival Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primaries. That forced the resignation of DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz.

Trump began taking advantage: "Leaked e-mails of DNC show plans to destroy Bernie Sanders. Mock his heritage and much more. On-line from Wikileakes, really vicious. RIGGED," he tweeted.

Ominously, too, the Russians appeared to listen to Trump. On July 27 he declared: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing."

According to the indictment, that same day the Russian hackers made their first attempts to spearfish private email accounts on Clinton's personal email server.

- Tactical leaks -

Over the final three months of the campaign, until days before the vote, WikiLeaks and Guccifer regularly released hacked materials. The leaks appeared tactically timed.

On October 7, when the notorious "Access Hollywood" videotape came out showing Trump speaking lewdly about women, a half-hour later WikiLeaks started publishing Podesta emails on its website, watering down the video's impact.

Clinton's advantage over Trump steadily crumbled. The data crunching website FiveThirtyEight later said there was a direct correlation between each leak and a fall in her poll numbers.

Trump meanwhile repeatedly questioned the Russia narrative, despite having been quietly informed by US intelligence of a hacking threat from Moscow.

"I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC," he said in his first debate with Clinton. 

"I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China. It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK?"

Ever since, Clinton has blamed the Russian attack, as well as a separate probe led by FBI chief James Comey into her misuse of a private emails server, for her loss.

"I was on the way to winning until a combination of Jim Comey's letter on October 28th and Russian WikiLeaks raised doubts in the minds of people who were inclined to vote for me, but got scared off," Clinton said the following year.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Clinton accused of 'cheating' in 2016 Democratic primaries

Explosive revelations by a top Democratic operative that the 2016 primaries were tipped in Hillary Clinton's favor have convulsed the party as it struggles to rebuild, and whipped up accusations of cheating from President Donald Trump.

Donna Brazile, the Democratic National Committee's interim chairwoman during key months of the presidential campaign, said Clinton's team essentially took over day-to-day operations of the DNC, in essence rigging the system against Senator Bernie Sanders, who was challenging Clinton for the party's nomination.

In a book excerpt published Thursday by Politico, Brazile said her DNC chair predecessor, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, had "let Clinton's headquarters in Brooklyn do as it desired" when it came to controlling party strategy and staffing.

She also said that an agreement reached between the DNC and Clinton's campaign to bring the party out of debt allowed Clinton to "control" party finances, strategy, and the money raised.

"This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party's integrity," Brazile said.

Political Washington shuddered with the revelations, with members of the Sanders camp crying foul and demanding changes to the DNC framework.

As of Friday, Neither Sanders nor Clinton had responded publicly to Brazile's remarks.

- Rigged -

Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Sanders ally who campaigned with Clinton after she won the nomination, expressed exasperation over what happened.

"This is a real problem," Warren, seen as a potential 2020 presidential candidate, told CNN. "We've got to hold this party accountable."

Asked whether she believes the system was rigged, Warren said "yes."

Trump seized on the crisis Friday, telling reporters that Brazile's book shows that Clinton "bought the DNC and stole the election from Bernie."

He also took the unusual step of suggesting that US justice officials investigate one of his political rivals.

"Everybody is asking why the Justice Department (and FBI) isn't looking into all of the dishonesty going on with Crooked Hillary & the Dems," Trump said at the start of a series of tweets about the scandal.

"Pocahontas just stated that the Democrats, lead by the legendary Crooked Hillary Clinton, rigged the Primaries! Lets go FBI & Justice Dept," he said.

Pocahontas is a nickname -- some call it a slur -- that Trump has repeatedly used to refer to Warren, in reference to her self-proclaimed Native American ancestry.

Minutes later, as he departed for an extended trip to Asia, Trump tweeted from Air Force One that Sanders supporters "have every right to be apoplectic."

"I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders, not Crooked H, without cheating, I was right."

Brazile, 57, is a longtime Democratic strategist, having worked on several political campaigns.

She became a Democratic analyst for CNN. Although she was on leave since July 2016 to serve as interim DNC chair, she resigned from the network that October after hacked emails released by WikiLeaks showed that she had shared questions with Clinton's campaign ahead of a debate sponsored by the network.

The new DNC chairman Tom Perez, who served in president Barack Obama's cabinet, did not respond directly to the Brazile allegations.

"We're moving forward," Perez insisted to CNBC.

"One of my goals here as DNC chair is to make sure that the nominating process for 2020 is a process that's totally fair and transparent for everybody," he said, adding that the Democratic primary debate schedule will be set "well in advance" of knowing who the candidates will be.

Sanders had complained last year that the debate schedule was set to favor Clinton, because they were held during off-hours so that fewer people saw Clinton's challengers.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Jessica Sanchez honored to sing anthem for Hillary

MANILA – Filipino-American singer Jessica Sanchez is making waves anew after she was tapped to record the song “Stronger Together,” which is the anthem of the Demoratic National Convention (DNC).

Composed by Carole Bayer Sager, Bruce Roberts and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds for US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, the song made its debut at the end of the DNC in Philadelphia on July 28.

n an interview with Billboard, Sanchez revealed she didn’t have to think twice about doing the song.

"It was so last minute. I went in the studio, they mixed it that night and they sent it out the next day," she said. "It's crazy to me, because I didn't think it was going to happen that quick."


"I’m really honored to be a part of it again," said the 20-year-old singer who also performed at the DNC in September 2012 for US President Barack Obama.

Honored to do this song for @HillaryClinton and the #DNC https://t.co/Q9lTQH8IqJ

— Jessica Sanchez (@JessicaESanchez) July 27, 2016

The "American Idol" runner-up also takes pride that the song has such a powerful message.

"With everything that is going on in the world right now, it's important for all of us to come together and stay strong," she said. "The message is great and it's great for the campaign. This is the time for us to play our part and go out and vote and be stronger."

Following the song’s debut, Sanchez said she is set to re-record the track “and make it a lot more clean.”

Sanchez first rose to fame after finishing as the runner-up in the 11th season of “American Idol.”

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Democrats in disarray on eve of convention to nominate Clinton

PHILADELPHIA - The head of the Democratic Party resigned on Sunday amid a furor over embarrassing leaked emails, hoping to head off a growing rebellion by Bernie Sanders supporters on the eve of the convention to nominate Hillary Clinton for the White House.

Lingering bitterness from the heated primary campaign between Clinton and Sanders erupted after more than 19,000 Democratic National Committee emails, leaked on Friday, confirmed Sanders' frequent charge that the party played favorites in the race.

In a statement, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said the best way for the party to accomplish its goal of putting Clinton in the White House was for her to step aside after the convention. Sanders had demanded earlier in the day that Wasserman Schultz resign.

The furor was a blow to a party keen on projecting stability in contrast to the volatility of Republican candidate Donald Trump, who was formally nominated at a raucous convention in Cleveland last week.

It also overshadowed preparations in Philadelphia for Clinton's coronation as the nominee to face Trump in the Nov. 8 presidential election. She will be the first woman nominated for president by a major U.S. political party.

The four-day Democratic convention will open on Monday. In some good news for Clinton, The New York Times reported that businessman and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will endorse her in a prime-time speech on Monday, saying she will be the best choice for moderate voters in 2016.

The cache of emails leaked on Friday by the WikiLeaks website disclosed that DNC officials explored ways to undermine Sanders' insurgent presidential campaign, including raising questions about whether Sanders, who is Jewish, was really an atheist.

Sanders said Wasserman Schultz, a U.S. representative from Florida, had made the right decision for the future of the Democratic Party. "The party leadership must also always remain impartial in the presidential nominating process, something which did not occur in the 2016 race," he said.

'RUSSIAN CONNECTION?'

The Clinton camp questioned whether Russians may have had a hand in the hack attack on the party's emails and were interested in helping Trump, who has exchanged words of praise with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"What's disturbing to us is that experts are telling us that Russian state actors broke into the DNC, stole these emails and other experts are now saying that Russians are releasing these emails for the purpose of helping Donald Trump," Clinton campaign chairman Robby Mook said on CNN's "State of the Union."

Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort said the Clinton camp was trying to distract from its party discord ahead of the convention.

"What's in those emails show that it was a clearly rigged system, that Bernie Sanders ... never had a chance," Manafort said on ABC.

Clinton, 68, a former secretary of state, and Sanders, 74, an independent U.S. senator from Vermont who ran for president as a Democrat, waged a bruising months-long battle for the nomination. Branding himself a democratic socialist, Sanders galvanized young and liberal voters with his calls to rein in Wall Street and eradicate income inequality.

But Sanders repeatedly voiced frustration with a DNC and party establishment he felt was stacked against him, and the resentment from Sanders and his supporters threatened to disrupt the convention.

"I'm not shocked but I'm disappointed," Sanders said of the emails earlier on Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

The emails showed DNC officials pondering various ways to undercut Sanders. Brad Marshall, the DNC's chief financial officer, apologized on Facebook on Saturday for an email in which he discussed how some voters in upcoming nominating contests in Kentucky and West Virginia would reject an atheist.

"He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage," Marshall wrote in a May 5 email to three top DNC officials. No names were mentioned, but Sanders was the only Jewish candidate.

"I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist."

Clinton told CBS's "60 Minutes" in an interview that aired on Sunday that she had not read any of the emails but it was "wrong and unacceptable" to bring religion into the political process.

SANDERS SUPPORTERS ANGRY

The emails angered many Sanders supporters who were already dismayed by Clinton's choice on Friday of low-key U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia as her vice presidential running mate. Kaine, 58, who could appeal to independents and moderates, has never been aligned with party liberals.

Sanders, who has endorsed Clinton and will speak on her behalf to the convention on Monday, said he would have preferred she pick U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a favorite of the party's liberal wing, as her No. 2.

"I have known Tim Kaine for a number of years. ... Tim is a very, very smart guy. He is a very nice guy," Sanders said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

"He is more conservative than I am. Would I have preferred to see somebody like an Elizabeth Warren selected by Secretary Clinton? Yes, I would have," he said.

Carrying pitchforks meant to portray Clinton as the devil, hundreds of Sanders supporters took to the streets of Philadelphia earlier on Sunday to say they felt betrayed by the DNC.

"It just validated everything we thought, everything we believed to be true, that this was completely rigged right from the beginning, and that you know it was really about what they were doing everything to set it up so she would win," Sanders supporter Gwen Sperling said.

DNC Vice Chairwoman Donna Brazile will serve as interim chair through the election, the DNC said on Twitter.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com